The Perfect Solution-A Suspense of Choices (29 page)

After the police and the thrill-seeking crowd ran past them and into the parking lot, Austin stretched out his arm to open the door for Catrine.

"I think we'll just let them have a go at it," he said. "Let's get out of here."

"Not with my son," An angry voice growled from behind.

Turning slowly, Catrine and Austin stared at the woman facing them. She had thrown off the hood of the coat and her hair was all askance over her head. She looked at them through the blood shot defiant eyes of a mad woman. It was clear to see that she would not be an easy force to reckon with. The very real gun that she had placed to the back of Brhin's head shook slightly.

"Step back, daddy or I'll shoot you," she ordered swinging the gun at Austin when he made as if to step between her and Catrine. "Give him here." She pointed the gun back at Brhin, "Or he dies."

"How can you do this to him?" Catrine clutched Brhin closer to her chest. "How can you scare this child like you are doing? He is trembling so hard I think his little heart will stop. Please, don't do this to him. He's been through enough today. He's tired. I somehow thought that you loved him. You went through a lot to get him"

"I love him enough not to let you have him back. I can take care of him as well as you can."

"How do you expect to do that? By running around the country forever? Because if you take my child I promise you I will hunt for him, throughout eternity."

"Don't threaten me, girl. You don't know who I am. I'll kill you right now. How are you going to hunt for him then? I can do for him as much as you can, probably even more. I have watched you two constantly. I know everything he likes and doesn't like. I know where you shop for groceries. I know the kind of things Brhin can talk you into buying and the things you never give a second thought. Do you realize how much that child wanted that remote control car you wouldn't buy him?"

Catrine looked at Brhin in surprise when his head popped up and turned to look back at Mona.

"Well, I knew." Mona thumped her chest with her free hand smugly. "And I bought it for him." She announced triumphantly.

"I didn't buy him the car because I don't give him everything that he wants. I am his mother not his friend." Catrine stated deliberately bursting Mona's bubble of superiority.

"Do you think you can raise a child by giving him only what he needs?" Mona stepped forward, putting her face closer to Catrine's. "Do you think he will grow up happy? Do you think he will grow up to love you?"

"Listen, Lady." Catrine angrily stepped towards Mona until they were standing forehead to chin. Catrine being the taller of the two and completely ignoring the gun held in the woman's hand continued her tirade. "Don't stand there and try to tell me how to raise my child. If you cared for him, you would not be putting him through this."

"You don't wanna be all in my face like that."

Mona picked up the gun and smacked Catrine hard on the forehead with its tip.

The sound of the thump echoing through the bones of her skull brought her back to her senses; Catrine took a couple of steps backwards. Bumping into Austin, she took a calming breath when he put his arms around her waist.

"Relax, Catrine. It won't hurt to let her talk." Austin admonished her softly.

"I'll try."

"I know where you work and I have been there." Mona continued as if she had never gotten angry. "I saw you sitting behind your little desk, fiddling with your hair as you played on your computer. I must say I liked it better longer. Oh now you believe me, huh?" She added when she saw the look that passed between Austin and Catrine. "You never saw me, did you? I was always around. It made me sick to watch you with Brhin. Every time I saw you hug or kiss him, I wanted to rip off your damned head. You don't deserve him. You who seem to have everything, and now you have a gorgeous doctor standing next to you. You don't need Brhin. You could probably have another child to replace him in no time one that would probably look just like him. Even in that you have more than I ever had or will ever have.

I love Brhin and know I can do a good job with taking care of him. I've visited his daycare and I even know where your bossy bitch of a sister lives." She tapped Brhin's head with the tip of the gun when Catrine jerked angrily at the criticism of her sister. "I have seen you all here and she runs you like a clock. How in God's name you let her tell you what to do all of the time I can't figure."

"I have no problem with the relationship I have with my sister."

"Phssst, you should." she snickered."Pass him over." She pressed the gun to harder to Brhin's skull causing him to press his head further into his mother's neck."

"All right, all right just back away a little. The child is afraid." Catrine hastily agreed. "Let loose, Brhin."

"No." Brhin whimpered and clutched his mother's neck tighter.

"Roosevelt, don't try and be a hero." Mona yelled at the teenager as he came running from behind the counter. "Boy, I already feel like killing you for the last little superman stunt you pulled. You may have pulled a fast one on me earlier tonight, but I be damned if I give you a chance to do it again."

When Roosevelt halted, she made a motion with the gun for Catrine and Austin to follow her as she backed down the narrow isle between the booths towards Roosevelt.

"Take it easy, Catrine. Stay calm," Austin instructed under his breath.

"She had better." Mona, obviously hearing Austin’s instructions, seconded the instruction.

"I would hate to use my little sedative to calm her down." She wiggled the gun at them.

"Roosevelt is your little boss back there?”Good," she remarked at his affirmative answer. "Get those keys from your boss and lock that door." Shouting her order, Mona pointed to the exit that Catrine and Austin had been about to go through.

'Who are you trying to fool?" She yelled at Roosevelt when he moved towards a second door after locking the first. "Just use the key on that door. You know all of those doors are locked." She turned and smirked at Catrine and Austin. "They locked the damn doors to keep me out, stupid cops. How you gonna lock out someone you've never seen especially when she's already in the building."Bring me those damned keys." she demanded to Roosevelt.

When Roosevelt had come close enough to put the keys in Mona's hands, Mona slammed the butt of the gun into his head, knocking him unconscious. Catrine screamed and hugged Brhin close. She pressed his face into the material of her coat to hide the violence of the situation from his view.

"Back off." Mona shouted and pointed the gun at Austin when he made a move to jump at her. "Do you wanna die? Do you wanna act superior, like you're some kind of superman and die in front of your son? Just follow me and no one will get hurt." She pressed the gun into the back of Brhin's head. "You understand?

Catrine nodded in the affirmative and followed Mona's lead.

"Yo, Mr. Manager," she shouted. "You take your little crew and go lock yourself in your freezer." She ordered when the sweat glistened manager appeared at the counter.

"Slam the door so I can hear it. And don't try to play me, 'cause if I come back there and you've tried to fake me out, I will kill you all."

"Yes, Ma'am." He and the other workers practically ran to the freezer. After a few minutes, the loud slam of the door was heard.

Switching her total attention back to the couple, Mona smiled menacingly.

"Now, I don't have time for this long drawn out goodbye. The police are out there holding their little guns and waiting for a clear shot, no doubt. So I will need cover. Let's see what you two can do for me?" She pointed her index finger at them in total attitude. "Brhin, come to me. My car is around the corner and it is going to take a bit of maneuvering to get us there. I'm pushing it as it is."

"Lady, I don't wanna go with you. I wanna stay with my momma. Go get your own little boy."

"Sorry, Brhin I choose you. I've watched you for months. There is nothing I will not do for you. Your momma and your good-looking daddy can just have another baby. I can't. I love you, boy. I will not do anything to hurt you."

"You hurt Roosevelt." Brhin pointed to the boy sprawled unconscious on the floor. "You're not nice." He accused candidly.

"He was a different story. I truly care for you. I have the little car waiting in the trunk of the car for you. Remember how much fun you had playing with it?"

"I don't want a car, I want my momma." Brhin clutched Catrine's neck and hid his face in the collar of her jacket.

"Tell him to let go," she ordered Catrine.

Catrine rubbed Brhin on the back and talked to him softly.

"Sweetie, please look at me," she said softly, continuing when he did as requested. "I want you to go over to Mona."

"Noooo." Brhin moaned softly, tears rolling down his face. He shook his head in the negative and placed his little hands on each of Catrine's cheeks and looked sadly into her eyes. "I don't want to leave you. I don't wanna go with her. I want you."

Catrine looked into Brhin's sad little face and wished that she could drop kick Mona Boots clean across the room. She wanted to hug him close and run from the building. The child was terrified. His bottom lip trembled and the tears ran unchecked down his face.

"I know, Sweetie. This will be for the best for right now. Don't think I will let you stay forever. You can call me. I'll come and get you."

"Don't tell him things like that." Mona yelled angrily. She moved as if to smack Catrine on the side of the head with the gun and Catrine quickly moved aside. "Stop playing with me, Lady." She moved closer to Catrine and jabbed her index finger onto the tip of Catrine's nose before reaching out for Brhin. "I'm tired of this. You look at me, Brhin. Look at me in the eyes." She pulled his face around by the little plait at the back of his head. "If you don't let go of her, Brhin," Mona threatened when he turned and looked at her as ordered, "I'll shoot your little redhead mommy and your gorgeous big daddy, too." She pointed the gun to Catrine's head. "That's a promise.”

"How can you do this to him?" Perplexed, Catrine rubbed Brhin's back in a comforting manner. "I had the impression that you cared for Brhin. Can't you understand how he feels? He will never be totally happy with you. You can give him all of the material things that he wants, but what are you going to do when he is crying for his mother and I'm the mother that he really wants?"

"Shut up," Mona yelled. "I'm not trying to hear any of this." She pushed Catrine backwards by ramming her hard in the shoulder with her free fist. "You're offending the hell out of me and you're pissing me off. I know you believe that you are God's gift to motherhood and could probably do the job better than anyone, but that won't stop me from killing you. Come now Brhin or I will kill the lot of you."

Catrine glared at Mona in the hope that the anger in her stare would pierce the woman's heart. She rotated her shoulder to ease the pain.

"Mona," Austin looked Mona in the eyes, hoping that his sincerity would show through. "Please don't do this. You know you don't want to kill anyone."

"Hell, naw I don't want to kill anybody, but I will. What do I have to lose? If I don't have Brhin, I have nothing, nothing." She repeated louder and with a break in her voice. "There is no one or anything in this entire sorry assed world that gives a damn about me. My mother cared so little for me, she walked out and left me in the hospital just a few hours after my birth. The no good bastard that claimed he was my father, neglected me and on the days when he tired of neglecting me, he raped and beat me. All of my damned life it has been one pile of crap after another dumped on me. And finally I drove away from the last bullshit town I was living in and moved here."

Mona paced back and forth in quick tiny steps. Keeping the gun pointed at them at all times.

"I bet you say you don't want to hear this fairy tale." She looked from Catrine to Austin and back again. "Hell, neither do I. Everybody and their momma have a tale to tell. My life doesn't make what I'm doing right in your eyes, but it justifies it in mine." She looked at them grimly. Her lip turned up slightly in derision. "I felt that everything was perfect here. It seemed like I had found the perfect solution to end my problems. And when I came here," she used her free hand to make an arch to indicate the inside of the building.

“One beautiful Saturday morning, I saw Brhin. He was back there." She pointed to the play area that could barely been seen through the darkness, "Standing on the top of the slide. I thought he was a little girl with that ponytail swinging from the back of his cap. Oh, did I tell you, it was about time you cut his hair? Why in the world a woman would let a little boy wear hair past his shoulders, I could never understand." She rambled before continuing her narrative. "At first I was terrified for Brhin. He looked like such a tiny boy and it made me wonder where his mother was. I wondered in horror, how a mother could let her baby climb so high and not be anywhere around to catch him if he fell and then I saw you. Sitting there smiling, like there was no problem. I vowed then and there that you would not have him for much longer. You didn't deserve him. So I sat down. Not too far away so that I could hear your conversation. One day I used my cell phone to take a picture of him.” Mona fished the beloved crumpled picture out of the pocket of her coat and showed it to Catrine.